Music has been used since long to provide entertainment and even relaxation. Generally, there are types of music available that are categorized as digital drugs or binaural beats and provide effects similar to taking a psychoactive drug (e.g., smoking, drinking, inhaling, or injecting of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine etc.).
These digital drugs or binaural beats rely on the frequencies of brain waves that can induce such effects. Brain works different frequency ranges, for example, “Gamma” relates to frequencies that are greater than 40 Hz, and are relevant to higher mental activity, perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness. Similarly, “Beta” (i.e., frequencies between 13 Hz and 39 Hz) are relevant to active, busy or anxious thinking, active concentration, arousal, cognition, and/or paranoia; “Alpha” (i.e., frequencies between 7 Hz and 13 Hz) are relevant to alert relaxation; “Theta” (i.e., frequencies between 4 Hz to 7 Hz) are relevant to deep relaxation and increased learning, and “Delta” relates to frequencies less than 4 Hz and are relevant to deep sleep.
Brainwave entrainment happens when an external frequency is provided that stimulates an effect (for example, to induce sleep). The sensation of binaural beats occurs when two coherent sounds of nearly similar frequencies are presented one to each ear with stereo headphones or speakers For example, if a frequency of 300 Hz is played in one ear and 307 Hz is played in the other ear, a binaural beat of 7 Hz is created in the brain. This frequency lies in the “Alpha” frequency that induces brain relaxation, as noted above. While, the binaural beats are generally intended for useful or medicinal purposes (e.g., by neurologists), these binaural beats may be harmful under several conditions. For example, the binaural beats may be harmful for people who have problems with seizures, individuals involved in any kind of activity where falling asleep could be harmful (such as working with heavy machinery or cooking), children, pregnant women, people who suffer from heart problems or use a pacemaker.
Therefore, techniques are desired for controlling execution of multimedia on a device.